The invention relates to a charging apparatus for transferring bakery products into and from an oven according to the preamble of claim 1.
A charging apparatus is a device located in front of bakery ovens for automatically transferring the bakery products to be baked from a proving drawer or another point in the bakery line into an oven and for removing the baked bakery products from the oven. The charging apparatus transfers a charging table laterally and vertically to that layer of the oven, a grate, onto which the bakery products to be baked are conveyed by means of the charging table for baking or from which the baked bakery products are removed from the oven. Charging apparatuses are referred to by different terms, such as filling and emptying devices for story grate ovens and baking robots.
Charging tables in known charging apparatuses move only laterally (direction X) and vertically (direction Y) in front of bakery ovens, and for this reason in known bakery lines all ovens have to be placed in parallel in one row. The charging table transfers the bakery products to be baked into the oven and transfers the baked bakery products from the oven moving also perpendicularly (direction Z) with respect to said directions;
A charging table is usually provided with a belt conveyor for conveying the products to be baked onto the charging table, from the charging table further into the oven, and for transferring the baked bakery products from the oven back to the charging table, and further from the charging table also in the direction of the table (direction Z).
Since in these known bakery lines the ovens are located in one row, the length the charging table travels laterally (direction X) becomes the longer the more ovens the bakery line comprises, and this restricts the capacity of the bakery line and causes restrictions for the use of space. The bakery products baked or to be baked can only be conveyed to and from the charging table only either from the front or from behind (direction Z), and this causes further restrictions.
Such charging apparatuses are known for example from the publications EP 568787 and EP 231831.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide a charging apparatus for solving the above problems.
The object of the invention is achieved with a charging apparatus, which is characterized in that the charging table is rotatable substantially horizontally, allowing the bakery products baked or to be baked to be transferred to the charging table and, similarly, the bakery products baked or to be baked to be transferred from the charging table in any horizontal direction of rotation of the charging table.
The preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.
The invention is based on the idea of improving the properties of a charging apparatus significantly with respect to known apparatuses by enabling the charging table to rotate round a vertical axis so as to eliminate the above restrictions. The location of the ovens, the transfer of the products to be baked to the charging apparatus and the removal of the baked products from the charging apparatus can be carried out horizontally from any direction. The invention thus allows the ovens and other devices to be located in another manner than only in one row. This allows the space in a bakery to be utilized more efficiently.
The invention also allows the addition of a crab to the charging apparatus for the removal of the baked products, which brings about a significant improvement in the capacity of the bakery line. A crab allows, for example, more ovens to be added to the bakery line. In conventional bakery lines the addition of ovens would result, for example, in that the charging table would not have time to remove the baked bakery products in time from the oven.
A crab is a conveyor device that moves independently for example laterally (direction X), and onto which the charging apparatus transfers the baked products removed from the oven, and which the crab transfers for example to a processing line for baked products, for example a cooling conveyor. This means that the charging table does not have to be driven to be emptied to an emptying station in the bakery line; instead, the charging table can be emptied onto the crab for example at the same time as the bakery products to be baked are transferred to the charging table. In this case the baked products can be transferred for example from the charging table to the crab when they are located one after the other. The transfer can take place when the charging table and the crab are located at any point in direction X.
Like the charging table of the charging apparatus, the crab can also be rotating, allowing baked products to be transferred from the crab in any direction.